The decision was unanimous.
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Johnson was convicted of the 1994 slaying of Angela Sizemore in Albany, Ga., AJC.com reported.
With his plea for clemency denied by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole late Wednesday and his appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court rejected Thursday afternoon, convicted Johnson’s attorney, Brian Kammer, had asked the nation’s high court for a stay of execution.
“The US capital punishment system is costly and broken, and the death penalty itself is cruel and inhuman” said Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty worldwide USA.
Johnson was sentenced to death.
“These appalling facts, along with helpful expert testimony, are now available and show that Mr. Johnson’s conviction and death sentence rest on a foundation made of sand”, Kammer wrote.
Johnson has had a tumultuous appeals process: One day before he was scheduled to die in 2011, a court delayed the execution after new evidence was found. But DNA testing of the new evidence did not exonerate him. Prosecutors say there is no doubt that Johnson killed Sizemore.
The bar owner and its security officer, who both knew Johnson, testified they had seen the two kissing, The Albany Herald reported. She was stabbed 41 times with a small, boring knife.
A man walking his dog later that morning found Sizemore’s body inside her SUV behind an apartment complex.
Kammer said new evidence suggests Sizemore’s murder was “tied to her involvement in illegal drug trafficking on the night of her death”.
Prison officials denied Johnson’s request for beer on the grounds that alcohol is a contraband item.
Johnson’s attorneys claim only a speck of Sizemore’s blood was found on Johnson’s jacket, consistent with his statement that he punched her in the nose.
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There were no DNA or fingerprints in Sizemore’s vehicle or on the murder weapon.
